The session began with the characters (Bernard, Burdock, Dandelion, Nathaniel, Zebediah) and Misa sitting outside the pizzeria in a car and discussing their options. The place was a simple bakery with an order-counter at the front, not a restaurant. There was a parking lot for visitors out front, and a small parking area for the bikes of the pizza deliverers at the back.
Nathaniel had by now found out that Burdock was carrying the Seraph of Novalis attunement. He was not happy. Burdock offered to go out and try and find out round the back who their "pizza-carrier" would be. Nathaniel decided to stay at the front. Bernard went in to order another couple of pizzas to the same requirements, in case something should happen to the first batch. People watched "their" pizzas getting made.
Out the back, Burdock resonated one driver and found out many things about him in that Mercurian way. He managed to strike up a conversation and find out that "Bob" would be taking the pizzas to the Civic Centre.
Meanwhile, Case and Martin had just finished a martial arts session at Case's dojo (with Martin in a student who was a regular host of his) and decided to stop by Domino's to get a pizza, so Martin could feed his host, on Case's motorcycle. They stopped off at an ATM, which Martin possessed and got œ50 from for incidental expenses.
All those watching pizzas saw the pizzas for the Civic Centre being finished, and boxed, and taken out by a young man.
Out the back of Domino's, an acne-ridden young man came out with pizza boxes under his arm. Burdock called over to him, and yes, it was "Bob". They began talking. From the other side of the parking lot, a bulky man headed towards them and the three motorcycles there.
Martin and Case arrived. Case eyed the oddly assorted group watching pizzas, while Martin tried to order himself a pizza.
The bulky man outside picked up the first motorcycle and threw it into the wall. The Symphony went tweedle, as of a celestial or diabolical destroying property. There was also a loud bang. Bernard, Zebediah, Nathaniel and Case all ran for the side passage, followed by Dandelion. Martin possessed one of the pizza workers in order to get his pizza order written down, given all the confusion - nobody was *listening* to him.
Burdock ran towards the man who was now picking up the second motorcycle, in an attempt to get close enough to use his peace aura. Case and Nathaniel pulled out revolvers and began shooting, while Zebediah wrenched part of the first smashed motorcycle away and threw it. Dandelion grabbed the shocked youth (and pizza) and dragged him away, attuning herself to him as she did so.
The burly man (Purulentus) threw the motorcycle at Burdock. It hit. Burdock went down. Case and Nathaniel scored, wounding Purulentus in cheek and shoulder. Zebediah missed. Martin finished ordering his pizza, and ducked out to see what was going on. Purulentus dived for cover behind the third motorcycle. Dandelion did a Song of Celestial Charm on the pizza boy to keep him pliable, getting him to the van. Misa took charge of the pizza, putting it in the Box.
Nathaniel circled to try and get a line of fire on Purulentus. Purulentus yelled coarse threats, hampered by a broken cheekbone. Bernard circled to try and focus a Song of Celestial Light. Zebediah threw more stuff. Case just charged head on. Martin helped Burdock drag himself out from under the motorcycle.
The third motorbike blew up, messily. Case diverted his charge just in time. Purulentus ran again, taking a shot in the chest from Nathaniel and a hit from Bernard with his Song, and disappeared in a Song of Celestial Motion.
All three pizza-delivery bikes were now wrecked.
Martin succeeded in a Medicine roll on Burdock, and with great skill realised how to fix that dislocated joint. ("Ouch.") Zebediah ran off, chasing the vanished demon. (His player needed an excuse to leave.) Case and Nathaniel guessed what each other was, introduced themselves, and acted manly. Bernard surveyed the situation, and people adjourned to the front court and the van.
Martin decided he needed to know what was going on, and possessed the pizza youth. His previous host was used to this sort of behaviour, so when he found himself near several smoking explosions and helping a wounded man and with people waving guns round, he did the sensible thing, made his excuses to his sensei Case, and did what the nice Malakite told him and got the hell out. With his pizza.
Case and Martin got the situation explained, and decided to tag along and lend a hand. Case revved up his motorcycle and prepared to ride escort, while all others piled into the van. They headed for the car park exit.
A man was hanging round there, smiling nastily. On general principles, Case decided to run him down, as (probably the GM was giving a few too many verbal clues here) the guy looked very much like a demon.
Case hit. The guy did something Songlike as Case's bike touched. The Symphony went tweedle. Case and bike vanished.
Nathaniel couldn't give way to his natural impulse to run the guy down, thanks to Burdock's aura. He managed to swerve past, but the guy reached out and made contact as the van skidded past. Tweedle.
The players, bike and van, all found themselves in a carpark with other cars. After just managing to avoid a nasty crash or two, they discovered they were in a car park by the Docks, about ten minutes from town and the Civic Centre, but the wrong side of Customs. Some heated comment on Burdock's peace aura from Nathaniel. Burdock was cheerfully peaceful.
They joined the line of cars queueing to get through, and as they got closer Martin possessed one of the three men on duty, making him come across and handle the "checks". The van and bike got processed, and left fast.
They headed out of the docks. As they made their way towards the centre of town, they spied a van following, and Bernard made out a bumper sticker with the phrase, "Think Kobally, Act Violently," and Case got that Malakite-of-Michael sense that combat was imminent.
Case told the others to go, saying he'd deal with this guy. Martin used his resonance to possess the electric ignition of the other van, making it stop. The driver (Purulentus, back again) was not pleased.
Nathaniel reluctantly gunned his van off: Purulentus concentrated, and one of the angelic van's back tyres exploded. This didn't stop Nathaniel driving, though it made an awful noise.
Case posed, Malakitely, on his motorbike, then announced his intention to ride round to the side, and shoot at Purulentus through the side window, with his revolver. Purulentus pulled a shotgun, did the ka-chink thing.
Case rolled for Drive, and got a 666. The player put her head in her hands.
With a surge of Calabite resonance, and a blast from his shotgun through his own windscreen, Purulentus got Case's motorbike squarely in the gastank as it began to turn, blowing Case across the street and through the window of a television store and into a pile of televisions. Case's arm was broken, and he had quite a few wounds from which blood was leaking. Alarms went off all over the place. Red lights flashed. Martin got jolted loose of Purulentus' ignition, by some strange manifestation of Symphonic disturbance. Case lay there, and thought vaguely about getting up.
Nathaniel, driving off, heard all the disturbance, remembered his Malakite Oath about never leaving a companion behind, and reversed into a 3-point-turn and charge. The other angels in the back just screamed many things, few of them repeatable.
Bernard suggested (loudly) that Nathaniel get out and go defend Case, while he (Bernard) took the wheel and got the hell back out again. Nathaniel agreed to this plan, jumping out and running till out of range of Burdock, then firing at Purulentus (in time to distract him from aiming his van at Case). The others in the angelic van got the hell out.
Case got up out of the televisions, found he still had his own gun (Malakim, you know, one has to pry their weapons out of their cold dead fingers) and did some shooting of his own. Purulentus reversed into a lamppost, took a couple more bullets, and decided to ram Nathaniel. Case jumped for the van door as it went by, dived in (with a vicious Acrobatic roll and some Essence) and started to beat bare-handedly on Purulentus. In karate style. While Purulentus was distracted, Nathaniel manifested green flames on his hands, dived in the other door, and between them they did serious damage to Purulentus' Vessel. It died, and they left, running away to the sound of police sirens as the van went up in flames behind them.
Meanwhile, the others decided to change vehicle and stopped off at the nearby multistory carpark, picking up a Volvo (Martin hotwiring the ignition) and leaving the van in its parking space. Dandelion collected a 24-hour parking ticket for it.
They got to the Civic Centre, and saw a janitor-type sweeping the steps outside. Feeling paranoid, they all squinted, and Dandelion recognised him as the guy with the weird Song of Motion from earlier. Bernard told Burdock to go out and distract him peacefully, which Burdock cheerfully did. Dandelion rushed out after him, and waved her Crown of Joy (which she'd prepared earlier) around, dancing with the demon happily. Bernard and Misa just rushed Martin/the pizzaboy inside.
Running down the corridor, Bernard pulled out his cellphone and contacted Francis. ("Francis, you are receiving a cellphone call..." - yes, we're Amber players all right.) Francis joined them, and they got the pizza boy to the door of the conference room, at which point Martin left him, possessing a security guard. The boy developed instant shock, "I was just at Domino's!" but they all shoved him inside. With the pizza.
Outside, the Flowers thing wore off, and the demon got non-peaceful. (He was one Movoir.) He did a Song of Motion on Dandelion, sending her ten metres straight up. She quickly went Celestial so as to land safely, becoming a winged leopard, rather than nobly trying to land on Movoir. Burdock sang Ethereal Form, going fairly invisible, and hung around near Movoir whispering about peace and love.
Bernard told Francis that there was a demon outside, so they ran off to take care of it, Francis putting on the other muscled Vessel which he saves to beat up demons. They stood in the entrance hall looking out of the doors and trying to figure out what to do that wouldn't put them inside Burdock's area of effect. Martin stayed with Misa by the conference room.
A security guard came up. Bernard tried to talk him into helping, but Francis persuaded him to go away, then threw a heavy chair out at Movoir. It caught him on the back, and he fell down some stairs. He moved away from the Civic Centre, looking for cover. Dandelion hit him with a Song of Charm, meaning to slow him down, and Francis took advantage of this to shoot him several times. Movoir's Vessel went down in a splatter of brains and blood.
There was discussion about what to do with the body (given the number of police sirens audible) till they decided to stick it in the boot of the Volvo and abandon the Volvo. They went back inside, and headed back to the conference room. The delivery boy came out with the money, still looking rather shellshocked. Francis (having changed back to his usual respectable-looking Vessel) offered to drive him back to Domino's, attuning to him, but the boy got suspicious and refused. Francis managed to run a fast-talk that he was really a Child Protection Councillor thing and that there was a maniac out there who'd run off with the boy's bike. The boy eventually accepted.
Bernard and Martin went to look for the security centre where the video camera tapes would be stored. They got there, and Martin possessed the guard there, opening the door to the other guard and Bernard. They stole any relevant tapes for the last half hour for the front of the Civic Centre, and plugged the cameras back in halfway so that it would look as if they'd been malfunctioning. Bernard kept the relevant tapes.
Francis drove the boy back, and tried to detune to him as he dropped him off, but failed, taking a point of Dissonance. This did not make him happy. He resolved to do something nice for the boy, like help him with his maths courses at University, so that he could get rid of that Dissonance. Hopefully before Dominic came by for his weekly check.
Everyone regrouped at the Civic Centre, Case and Nathaniel joining them. Case decided not to attend the debriefing as he hadn't been involved, but Martin thought he'd attend. Francis got back just in time. Case gave Nathaniel a card with his address and phone number before leaving.
Midnight struck. Marc arrived. He congratulated everyone on managing successfully, then asked for a report. Bernard volunteered to give it, and Nathaniel muttered something.
Bernard managed to summarise the evening's events. When they got to the part about abandoning the van, Dandelion helpfully gave Marc the parking ticket. Bernard passed over the stolen video cassettes.
Marc thanked everyone again, saying that he would be passing a report to their Superiors, and vanished with Misa.
The characters relaxed. Dandelion and Burdock decided to go clubbing and regenerate some Essence. Nathaniel also muttered about going clubbing, but not in quite the same way. People eventually headed off to do useful things.